The Journey Home
by Mommy Bear
Summary: Gaara sat in a tree just above the campfire. Sitting up this high gave him a birds-eye-view of the surrounding area.  No one could get close to the camp with Gaara of the Desert on guard.


**Disclaimer: Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto**

Author Notes: I wrote this several months ago and with a little prompting from someone, I thought I would share it. Let me know what you think. Please review, at that is the only way I will know if this story works. Thanks.

The Journey Home

Gaara sat in a tree just above the campfire. Sitting up this high gave him a birds-eye-view of the surrounding area. No one could get close to the camp with Gaara of the Desert on guard. Below him, Shikamaru and Kankuro lay sleeping. He could hear one of them snoring extremely loud, " Shikamaru" Gaara growled in disgust. If he didn't stop snoring everyone and everything for miles around them would know they were there. Gaara let out a low growled. They were almost home from a long, successful mission and he didn't want anything to spoil it.

He broke a twig off the branch he was sitting on and threw it down on the Leaf Ninja. Shikamaru slapped at the twig and continued to snore. Gaara grabbed a larger twig, dropping it directly on Shikamaru's face. Again the ninja slapped at it and snored even louder. "This noise will give us away" he growled almost inaudible. He took his hand and gathered some sand from his gourd and slowly let it fall down into Shikamaru's open mouth, "There," he said quietly in his gravely voice, "that should do it." Shikamaru awoke with a start, coughing and spewing sand from his mouth. He glared at Gaara. "Aw, come on man, what was that for."

"Be quiet – your snoring."

"Hey, I was sleeping, you're such a drag." He turned over and went back to sleep. Gaara glared at him, putting the rest of the sand back in his gourd. At least he had accomplished his task. Now the night was dead quiet. Almost too quiet.

Kankuro awoke a few minutes later with a start, "What was that?" he looked directly up at his brother. Gaara shrugged. "Nothing, go back to sleep." Kankuro tried to get comfortable on the rocky ground. He knew he should put a log on the fire, but was to exhausted so he settled in and dozed back to sleep.

The demon of the desert surveyed the night. He too had hear the noise - a swish. It almost sounded like a large bird. But at this time of night, not likely. Still he wondered about it. He tuned his eyes and ears in the direction of the sound. Nothing now.

Kankuro bolted upright. "Gaaara, Gaara, did you hear that?" There was no reply from Gaara. "Hey where are you?"

"Quiet," snapped Gaara from the behind him. Both brothers felt a strong wind begin to blow. Shikamaru sat upright too. "Hey, what the.."

"Quiet," the brothers said in unison. They knew something was up. Leaves were now falling from the trees. The wind increased and began to bend over large trees The force was strong and all three shinobi had a hard time moving forward to investigate. The clouds had covered the moon, making it almost impossible to see.

Kankuro caught movement out of the corner of his eye. "Duck, he yelled." Just then a shuriken hit the tree at the side of them. Gaara gathered his sand as he prepared to let it go against the unknown attacker. Kankuro too ready with his puppets. Shikamaru took a ready stance, he knew his shadow jutsu was useless with no light. He gripped his kunai tightly. Just then a second and third shuriken struck the tree right by Shikamaru's face leaving a few small cuts on his cheek from their force. "What the.." Shikamaru felt the blood on his face, "What a drag," he said a little to loudly.

"OH NO," they heard a female voice say." Immediately the wind stopped, the clouds rolled back and Temari slowly appeared.

"What are you trying to do, kill me?" Shikamaru said.

Temari blushed as she saw him. Then she saw Gaara and Kankuro. "Well, what are you guys doing trying to sneak up on me and scaring me like that," she yelled. "I could have killed you." Then she realized who she was talking too. "At least I could have injured you." Her voice softened a bit. "Anyway,

what are you guys doing here?" she asked.

"We're on our way home," growled Gaara

"But, but you're not due home for a few more days!" She said.

"Well," drawled Shikamaru. "We finished early and thought we would surprise you, what a drag."

Temari looked stunned. "Well, some surprise, are you okay Shikamaru, I mean you have blood on your face?"

"Hey, no thanks to you." he said.

Kankuro couldn't hide his laugh, "See what you've done to your boy friend." This time Temari blushed a deep purple and so did Shikamaru. "Besides Temari, what are you doing out here?"

"I couldn't sleep, I was worried about you guys, so I came out here to practice. You know, playing around, don't want to get rusty. "

"Well, you're not rusty said Kankuro looking at Shikamaru's face.

"Good thing you weren't practicing your _gale wind palm i_sn't it?"

"Too bad Gaara made me quit snoring, or you would have know we were here." Shikamaru was still fretting from the near incident. Kankuro shook his head noticing that Shikamaru was still eying the sand sib sister then he said with a yawn, "Let's get some sleep, I'm tired."

With that Temari gathered her things and lay down by the fire. Kankuro hurriedly lay on one side of her and Gaara quickly sat on the other side. Both casting sideways glances at Shikamaru. Shikamaru looked dejected and went across from the fire and lay down, "What a drag he said."


End file.
